2019 European Union Dual-Use List in Effect

Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2019/2199 of 17 October 2019 amending Council Regulation (EC) No 428/2009 setting up a Community regime for the control of exports, transfer, brokering and transit of dual-use items was published in the Official Journal of the European Union on December 30, 2019.

The regulation updates the European Union (EU) List of Dual-Use Items, found in Annex I of Council Regulation (EC) No 428/2009, to align it with changes that occurred in the multilateral export control regimes (MECRs) in 2018. The 2019 EU list went into force on December 31, 2019.

Dual-use items are civilian goods and technologies that can be applied to a military or WMD end-use.

The MECRs are collections of countries that establish common standards and mechanisms, including guidelines and detailed lists, for implementing controls on items with military and WMD applications. The four principal MECRs are the Wassenaar Arrangement (dealing with conventional arms and related dual-use items), the Missile Technology Control Regime (dealing with missiles, other delivery systems, and related dual-use items), the Nuclear Suppliers Group (dealing with nuclear and nuclear-related items), and the Australia Group (dealing with chemicals, biological agents, and related dual-use items).

The 2019 EU list contains the following new entries:

• ‘Other’ discrete microwave transistors (3A001b3f);

• Signal generators with specified ‘Radio Frequency modulation bandwidths’ (3A002d5);

• Software designed to restore operation of microcomputers/ microprocessors after Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) or Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) disruption (3D005);

• Masks and reticles designed for optical sensors (6B002); and

• Air-launch platforms for space launch vehicles (9A004g).

The following entries have been amended:

• New decontrol note for ‘open-cell foam’ electromagnetic wave absorbing materials (1C001);

• Control entry for gear machine tool to include a cascaded structure for the control criteria (2B003);

• New local definition of ‘measuring range’ for linear displacement measuring instrument (2B006b1);

• Control entry for Digital-to-Analogue Converter to avoid overlapping of controls (3A001a5b);

• Control entry for multi-layer mask control (3B001h);

• New decontrol note for “Information security” items specially designed for a ‘connected civil industry application’ (5A002);

• Control entry for cryptographic activation token, including a Technical Note for the local definition of ‘cryptographic activation token’ (5A002);

• Control entry for hydrophones operating over 1000m (6A001a2a6);

• New Note 6 for lasers defining ‘Single transverse mode’ and ‘Multiple transverse mode’ (6A005);

• Control entry for underwater submersible vehicles (8A001c);

• Acronym for “CEP” (“Circular Error Probable”) (7A103.c); and

• Inclusion of detonation engines in entry 9A111.

In addition, the entry for technology for diffusion bonding for gas turbine engine components (9E003a7) was deleted.

For more information, see “2019 Update of the EU Control List of Dual-Use Items,” https://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/docs/2019/october/tradoc_158393.pdf.

The 2019 EU List of Dual-Use Items is available at https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=OJ:L:2019:338:FULL&from=EN.

Author: Richard Glen Young, Richard.Young@SECURUSTrade.com, January 6, 2020